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Students expelled after Facebook group calls for 'execution' of Jews, black people

About 15 students wrote messages championing ‘white power’, posted pictures of guns and encouraged recruitment so they can ‘complete their mission’

The alt-right movement – known for white supremacist views and its overtly racist ideology – has gained traction during the divisive US presidential race. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

By Sam Levin

A Nazi-themed Facebook group that called for the “execution” of Jews and African Americans has led to the expulsion of five Boulder, Colorado, high school students in an unusual case of “alt-right” hate speech spreading to teens in a liberal city.

About 15 students participated in a “4th Reich’s Official Group Chat” on Facebook, according to a Boulder police report, which said members discussed “killing all Jews and [N-words]” and encouraged each other to “recruit more members so they can complete their ‘mission’.”

Members wrote messages championing “WHITE POWER!”, posted pictures of guns, called a firearm a “[N-word] BLASTER”, used derogatory terms for gay people, joked about “rape memes”, declared that they “must lynch the [N-words]”, and mocked Mexicans, copies of the group’s chats showed.

The controversy culminated in expulsions at Boulder Preparatory high school but comes at a time when the alt-right movement – known for white supremacist views and its overtly racist ideology – has gained traction during the divisive US presidential race.

Some have argued that Trump’s charged rhetoric – with frequent speeches demeaning and stereotyping Mexicans, African Americans, Muslims and other minorities – has fueled a racist backlash and created a platform for alt-right groups and white working-class people in rural America who feel disenfranchised and ignored in mainstream politics.

The Colorado case, however, suggests that the hateful and violent speech has also made its way into wealthier white urban communities, in this case in an ultra-liberal city known for its “hippy culture” and tolerance.

“It was a shock to the community,” said Scott Levin, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. “It isn’t as if there is any identifiable group [in Boulder] that is advocating this. There’s a lot of hateful rhetoric going on in this country right now, and that has just empowered some teenagers.”

Survey of rural kids flags learning problems that could hold back China's push to economy focusing on services, technology

By Chen Na And Shi Rui

(Beijing) — Children in rural areas of China suffer from slow cognitive development due to a lack of proper parenting and nutrition, casting a shadow over the future of the country's economy, a Stanford University study shows.

Scott Rozelle, co-director of the Stanford University Rural Education Action Program (REAP), told Caixin that more than half of the toddlers 24 to 30 months old and about 40% of the infants 6 to 18 months old scored below average in IQ tests. The average IQ score for these age groups should range between 90 to 109.

By monitoring the development of 2,500 children across Shaanxi, Hebei and Yunnan provinces in 2015, the REAP study found that the poor development of rural children was mostly due to poor parenting.

Only about 5% of parents in rural areas read books to their children, and 70% of families surveyed possessed only one book, or no books at all, the study showed.

"Chinese families love their children but don't know much about parenting," Rozelle said. "They think reading a book or singing to their babies is silly because they think 'They're just babies.' "

The study also showed that malnutrition also contributed to poor development.

Let 6-year-olds walk to school alone, European officials advise parents

Children walk home alone after a day at school in Pontevedra, Spain, in September as part of the country's “Road to School” program. (Miguel Riopa/AFP/Getty Images)

By Rick Noack

LONDON — The idea of 6-year-old children walking to school alone would horrify a lot of parents. In Spain, however, parents are actively being encouraged to let their kids walk off without them.

Since 2010, a program now implemented in seven communities has tested how much space parents should allow their children. According to researchers there, the answer is: a lot. Allowing even first-graders to walk to school alone builds their self-confidence, the researchers argue. About a fourth of all students ages 6 to 12 regularly walk to school without being accompanied by parents, according to statistics seen by news agency AFP.

In the United States, such practices would likely be much more controversial. Cases of “free range” parents who allowed their children to play outside without observing them have repeatedly made headlines in recent years. American children spend about 90 percent of their time indoors in their parents' home, according to a recent study by the University of California.

The debate over how much leeway younger children should be given isn't unique to the United States, however. Psychologist Haim Ginott coined the term “helicopter parents” in the 1960s, referring to parents who constantly monitored their children. Since then, according to Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, concerns over allowing 6-year-olds to walk to school alone have been on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Surveys show that the share of German 6-year-olds who walk to school alone declined to 17 percent in 2000 from 91 percent in 1970. Figures from the United Kingdom show a similarly dramatic decline.

A screenshot of the video which went viral, showing terrified students in the mud pit with the snakes.

KUALA KANGSAR, Oct 19 — The Perak Civil Defence Force suspended 10 personnel from taking part in school co-curriculum programmes after they had asked 45 pupils from SK Beluru, Kuala Kangsar, to wade through a muddy pit with snakes in it.

The personnel had conducted a “motivational camp” for the pupils — boys and girls aged between 10 and 12 — at the force’s headquarters in Kuala Kangsar on Saturday.

A video, which had since gone viral, showed young girls screaming and crying after they were asked to step into a pit and later told there were two blood pythons in it.

The three-day camp, held from Friday to Sunday, was jointly organised by the force and the school.